This April, we saw Liam Coen’s Jacksonville Jaguars give up two first-round draft picks, a second, and a fourth to move up three spots in the NFL Draft and select Heisman trophy winner Travis Hunter.
That would be considered a light haul compared to what Adam Schefter has just revealed the Miami Dolphins were willing to pay to secure Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Joe Burrow.
“Before the 2020 NFL draft, the Dolphins offered the Bengals four first-round picks in exchange for the No. 1 overall selection and the ability to draft Burrow, league sources told ESPN,” Schefter wrote in an ESPN article published on Saturday.
Schefter went on to say that no serious conversations were had, forcing the Dolphins to select National Champion Tua Tagovailoa fifth overall, one spot before Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert.
Schefter Confirms Dolphins Will Move On From Tua Tagovailoa
As if making the former fifth overall draft pick the third-string quarterback wasn’t explicit enough, ESPN’s sources confirmed Saturday that Miami intends to move on from Tagovailoa this offseason.
Mike McDaniel appears to have a job in South Beach next season, but their search for a new general manager has been going on for over a month already.
It is expected that whatever GM is brought in will be asked to figure out how to move the very expensive trade piece that is Tagovailoa.
“Miami already owes Tagovailoa $54 million guaranteed in 2026; another $3 million of his 2027 salary becomes guaranteed on March 15, meaning the Dolphins would like to decide the most effective way of separating from the quarterback before that date,” Schefter wrote. “Cutting Tagovailoa would leave a $99 million dead money salary cap charge — the largest in NFL history. Designating Tagovailoa as a post June 1 cut would spread out the money and make it count for $67.4 million in 2026, and $31.8 million in 2027.”
Cutting the quarterback would be drastic, but finding a team to inherit his lofty contract may be impossible.
Miami is firmly planted between a rock and a hard place, but luckily, the Denver Broncos may have provided the blueprint years ago.
Denver Broncos Ate Millions To Move Russell Wilson
The Broncos were in quarterback hell for nearly a decade after Peyton Manning retired.
Several gunslingers held the mantle of quarterback in Mile High, including Trevor Siemian, Brock Osweiler, Case Keenum, Joe Flacco, Drew Lock, and the list goes on.
But when Russell Wilson signed a $245 million deal in 2022, the search was supposed to be over.
Fast forward two seasons, and Wilson is a bottom-three quarterback in the league. The Broncos wanted to move on, and here is how they did it.
In 2024, Denver cut Wilson in March.
This, in turn, caused $85 million in dead cap space, $32 million of which is still on the books this year.
They drafted Bo Nix 12th overall.
This takes quarterback contracts out of the picture, as all rookies are compensated the same.
In conclusion, if the Dolphins can’t find a dance partner (which feels likely), they need to cut their losses and find a young player they believe in.
Of course, relying on a rookie is risky, but staying in quarterback purgatory is worse.
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